Tag Archives: Film

Movie Review – Shazam!

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TL;DR – By finding a focus, Shazam! shows that DC can really make great films when they focus on something, in this case, the role of family.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene

Shazam! Image Credit: Warner Brothers.

Review –

By now, I am sure you have heard about the issues with the DC Extended Universe, in the race to get that big multi-film spanning Cinema Empire they jumped the gun too early and rushed forward before finding out if people wanted what they were giving. During its First Run, there was only one film that was both a critical and commercial success, Wonder Woman, this was because it had its own heart and was not just here to push a cinematic universe, and it has something to say. Since then we have had Aquaman that while not perfect was at least trying to do something interesting, and today we get a look at the next film that found that fun is fine, but heart is more important.

So to set the scene, we open as a young Thad (Ethan Pugiotto) is on a car trip with his unpleasant family in the 1970s when he is sucked into another realm run by Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) the last of the council of wizards left. He is trying to find someone pure of heart to be his successor, but alas Thad is not the one. Fast forward to December 2018 when we find Billy Batson (Asher Angel) helping the police out, but it a ruse to get into their computer because he is trying to find his mum that he lost as a child. Well, it didn’t work out and Billy is put with new foster parents Victor (Cooper Andrews) and Rosa (Marta Milans), not that he plans to stay long. However, everything changes when a subway trip leads him to a dark cave and he yells out the word Shazam becoming someone completely else (Zachary Levi).

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Movie Review – Destroyer

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TL;DR – This is a film that holds its cards very close to its chest but that makes the slow burn that much better   

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Destroyer. Image Credit: Madman.

Review –

Okay … wow, this is a difficult film to parse because its structure and tone jump all over the place and it is a film guards its biggest conceit at all times. This also makes it a difficult film to review because there are vignettes throughout that I really like and really didn’t and it is hard to conceptualise that without immediately running into spoilers. However, that is what we will attempt to do.

So to set the scene, we open on Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) a detective in the LAPD who has clearly had a tough life, and is clearly worse for wear after a long night of drinking. She is arriving at a murder scene of a John Doe that had been shot multiple times. The police on site were not happy to see Erin, and even less so when she implies she knows who did it because she recognises the tattoo on the back of his neck and the money covered in die spread around the body as a warning. All of this is confirmed when we next see Erin at her office and she gets a letter with one of the dyed bills revealing a past that haunts her to this day.

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Movie Review – Triple Frontier

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TL;DR – While it has all the components for a good film, it feels like it is spending more of its time imitating than driving its own course.     

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Triple Frontier. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

This is an interesting time for the action films, there are spaces where it is showing brand new filmmaking techniques, films that build tension as I have never seen, or simply shots where you go, how did they get that? Unfortunately, today I am not looking at a film like that, because today we review one of the most paint-by-numbers films I have seen in a very long time.   

So the set the scene, we open in Colombia where Pope (Oscar Isaac) works as an ‘independent observer’ helping the local police take down one of the local drug cartels. While there he becomes friendly with a local informant Yovanna (Adria Arjona) who lets him know how to get to Gabriel Martin Lorez (Reynaldo Gallegos) the local big bad. This is not a mission that he can pull off alone, nor does he want to involve the locals because they might tip his hand. So instead, he goes back to the States to recruit his old military Special Forces team. Redfly (Ben Affleck) now sells condos … badly and can barely keep his head above water after the divorce, Ironhead (Charlie Hunnam) spends all his time giving talks to military trainees, and his brother Ben (Garrett Hedlund) is now an MMA fighter, and Catfish (Pedro Pascal) can no longer fly planes after an incident. Together they go down to provide expert reconnaissance, and maybe a bit more than just that.    

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Movie Review – Hotel Mumbai

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TL;DR – This is an incredible, violent, and emotionally visceral film that will grab you in the first frame and not let go  

Score – I honestly don’t know how to score this.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Hotel Mumbai. Image Credit: Screen Australia.

Review –

In a now previous life, I taught international relations to university students. This is a large discipline and one of the areas we looked at was terrorism, which happens to be one of the most pressing security issues in the modern world, or not, it’s complicated. All of this meant that when I walked into the theatre to review this film I thought I had a pretty good handle on what I was about to see, as I was quite familiar with the 2008 Mumbai Attacks, and well I could not have been more wrong.

So to set the scene, we open with a boat slowly making its way into one of the many harbours on the Mumbai shoreline. On the boat are eight well-dressed young men who could be there for work in the financial capital of India, but immediately you know that is not the case. Each of them carries a large duffel bag and they are listing to someone give them instructions, directing them to different landmarks across the city. Meanwhile, across the city everyone else is just going through their day as normal, Arjun (Dev Patel) is trying to get his dastaar perfect as he gets ready for work at the Taj Hotel, Zahara (Nazanin Boniadi), her husband David (Armie Hammer), and their nanny Sally (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) are arriving at the hotel after a long flight and everyone is racing to get the room ready for her as her mother is a VIP, and the hotel head chef Hemant (Anupam Kher) is just trying to work out how to get everything done in such a short time. None of them knows the hell that is heading for them.

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Movie Review – Captain Marvel

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TL;DR – This is a film filled with wonderful characters, fantastic action, and some of the best banter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.    

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Captain Marvel. Image Credit: Marvel.

Review –

It feels like it has been an eternity since Thanos snapped his fingers and destroyed the world in Infinity War. Since then we have been wondering wanting to know what happened, however, in the closing seconds of the film Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) pulled out a pager and sent out a signal calling someone to help. Well, today we get to see just who had that pager, and just who is behind the red and blue.

So to set the scene, we open with Vers (Brie Larson) asleep on the Kree homeworld. She rarely has a restful night’s sleep because her dreams are punctuated with wars she cannot remember. Well, there is one way to get over a lack of sleep and that is to wake up your commanding officer Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) and have a good old-fashioned sparing session. Well as old fashioned as one can be when you are on an alien planet, have no memories from before six years ago, and oh you can shoot fire out of your hands. The Kree are fighting a losing war against the Skrull, a race that can mimic anyone down to their DNA, who infiltrate worlds and work their way up until they can take them over from the inside out. After training, she is finally brought to the Supreme Intelligence (Annette Bening) the AI that runs the Kree Empire and given her first mission. With the rest of the Starforce including Yon-Rogg, Korath (Djimon Hounsou) and Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan) they are to infiltrate a planet that has just fallen to the Skrulls to extract an undercover agent as Ronan (Lee Pace) provides cover fire with an orbital bombardment. Well, that’s the plan but plans rarely quite work out as nicely as we would like.

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Movie Review – The Wound (Inxeba) (2017)

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TL;DR – The Wound sits on the precipice of culture, tradition, and masculinity, and shows the damage on inflexibility.     

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

The Wound (Inxeba). Image Credit: Urucu Media.

Review –

I have been spending the day brushing up on the many foreign films that I just haven’t been able to see, and the next stop on my trip around the world is South Africa. African cinema is one area where I need to explore more because this is the first film I have ever seen in Xhosa. With that in mind, let’s look at a film that explores the world of becoming a man in a very traditional society.

So to set the scene, throughout the year Xolani (Nakhane Touré) or X to his friends spends his time working and living alone in the city. However, once a year he comes back to the mountains to be a helper in the Ulwaluko ceremony. This is the Xhosa ceremony that marks the transition from boy to manhood. However, while he is there as a guide to help the initiates, X is also there for another reason, because it is the one time he gets to connect with Vija (Bongile Mantsai) a friend and secretly his romantic partner. This year X is being put in charge of Kwanda (Niza Jay Ncoyini) who is considered soft because he grew up in the city and does not care for tradition.

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Movie Review – Green Book

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TL;DR – When it is a Road Trip film it works really well, with two charismatic leads, as a social commentary film which it is desperately trying to be, well it fails dismally.      

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Green Book. Image Credit: Universal Pictures.

Review –

As it gets close to February, I continue my yearly tradition of trying to see all of the Best Picture nominees before the Oscars ceremony. While this is the plan, it is rarely successful, however, I thought it best to at least see all the films with a strong chance of winning on the night. Well, this leads us to Green Book which is actually a very interesting film. For it is a film of two halves, one that works and one that doesn’t, and both of these halves are in direct competition with each other.

So to set the scene, it is in the early 1960s and Frank “Tony Lip’ Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) works for the Copacabana at night as a combination bouncer/maître d/driver. As well as this, Tony always finds an opportunity to make a quick buck “bullshitting” people. When the Copacabana closes for a couple of months for renovations Tony is left with very little money to keep his family going when he gets a call about a driving opportunity at Carnegie Hall for a Dr Shirley (Mahershala Ali), only to find that he is not a medical doctor but a musician, he is black, and that he is about to embark on a tour of the deep south. Tony needs the money, but he also has problems with African-Americans to the point that he threw out two glasses that African-American plumbers used when fixing the pips in his house. Well eventually Tony agrees to take ‘Doc’ Don Shirley on his tour, well only after Don called his wife Dolores (Linda Cardellini) to check if it was all right.   

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Movie Review – Polar

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TL;DR – This is a film that revels in the tonal whiplash, but aside from an interesting performance from Mads it never quite comes together.     

Score – 2 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Polar. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

One of the things I have been really enjoying the last couple of years is how action films are taking leaps and bounds with their cinematography and storytelling. This has led to some interesting films being made that explore weird and wonderful scenarios. Today we are looking at a film that first came into being as a graphic novel and you can see that DNA all throughout this film. Though while Polar has made the jump from the page to the big screen, or at least as big a screen as you want with Netflix, I am not sure it was a completely successful transition.

So to set the scene, we open in the wilds of Chile where Michael Green (Johnny Knoxville) is very much enjoying the last few days before his retirement, with drugs, booze, and of course women. Just one problem, one of those things is about to kill him, and sure enough, he is not long for this world. Back in America, Duncan (Mads Mikkelsen) is a fortnight away from his own mandatory retirement when he finds out that many of the agents form the hitman company he works for has been killed in recent days. Vivian (Katheryn Winnick) his contact and his handler for Mr Blut (Matt Lucas) lets him know that they have found the person killing all their agents and Duncan is tasked with going to Belarus to send a message. Just one problem, all is not what it seems.     

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Movie Review – Dragon Ball Super: Broly (Doragon Bōru Sūpā: Burorī, ドラゴンボール超 ブロリー)

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TL;DR – A great step back into this world, and while it fumbles a bit in the middle, it starts and end on a strong note.   

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene, but images play throughout the credits

Dragon Ball Super: Broly. Image Credit: Madman

Review –

Back in the day, Dragon Ball Z was one of those shows that everyone in my age group watched almost religiously in the morning. From memory I watched all of the show, all the way to the end of Dragon Ball GT and then it kind of fell off my radar as I entered high school. Well a few years back I stumbled across TeamFourStar creating an abridged version of Dragon Ball Z and that flood of nostalgia came running back. Well today as a new movie dropped here in Australia I thought it was time to re-visit the past, to see who the show has evolved, and of course support the official release.

So to set the scene, forty years ago on the Planet Vegeta a convoy of ships arrive in orbit. Landing in the palace compound King Vegeta (Christopher Sabat) is introduced to Frieza (Christopher Ayres) his new master with a short temper. In his rage King Vegeta checked on his son and was aghast to find a low born baby in a nearby crib had a higher power level. So King Vegeta had the baby shot into space to concur an inhospitable planet (basically to kill the child). His father Paragus (Dameon Clarke) raced of to find his child, but in the process of saving him their ship is destroyed trapping them on the planet forever. Fast forward to today, and Frieza is back and on the march and needs new warriors to take on Goku (Sean Schemmel), Vegeta (Christopher Sabat) and the other warriors of the galaxy and two of his scouts have discovered a high power level off on a planet in the distant reaches of the galaxy.

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Movie Review – IO

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TL;DR – This is a film that has the appearance of wanting to say something profound, but never actually gets around to saying much of anything.    

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

IO. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

In some respects, Netflix has been the saviour of the small concept science fiction film in recent years as cinemas abandon anything but the next tent pole franchise blockbuster. However, for all the wonders of Annihilation (see review) and films like that, there has been a slew of mediocre dull affairs. Today we look at a film that at first look feels like it should be the first, but unfortunately, it ended up being the latter.

So to set the scene, there were many attempts to forestall the coming abyss including making a satellite to harvest geothermal energy from other planets. However, it was all in vain because before they could intact their plan, the atmosphere on Earth turned bad becoming toxic at most lower altitudes. Most people that could leave the Earth did so in a great exodus for the space station IO around Jupiter’s moon Io. There are few people left on the planet but Sam Walden (Margaret Qualley) is one of them, trying to find a way to fix the planet rather than flee it. Well, on IO they have finally stored enough energy to send people off on interstellar colonisation missions, so they are stopping the evacuations of Earth. Sam has one choice, give up her father’s research and get on the last ship out of a dying planet, or be left behind.

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